faster than karl rove could say cuyahoga county, fftdz over before the mail-in votes were counted. another way to phrase the question, beyond having a winner, do elections have results? democrats were quick to claim a mandate for the president but republicans as evidenced by their stance on the fiscal cliff, don't seem to agree. here to help sort it out is political reporter joe williams and chief economic correspondent for politico, ben white. thank you both for joining us. joe, let me begin with you. i have this notion that this sort of theological hard right loss this election whether it was immigration, the reality that marginal tax rates will go up on the wealthy, the debate about same-sex marriage, do they now need to recast their whole ideology in the context of that result? >> if they do, they're not doing a very good job of it. basically, the biggest change we've seen are in the faces. not necessarily in the rhetoric. we have marco rubio emerges as the front-runner for g.o.p. leadership in 2014 or beyond. we have tim scott being appointed to replace jim demint but you take